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A wingless aircraft has an elongated fuselage with a nose and an aft end. The fuselage encompasses an air duct, and this air duct has a main portion extending rearwardly from a frontal inlet in the nose and dividing into a first branch that extends laterally to a side outlet and a second branch that extends longitudinally through the fuselage to an aft outlet. Substantially all of the lateral cross‐sectional area of this nose is the inlet of the main portion, with the first branch being substantially larger than the second branch. Air‐propelling means are mounted within the main portion, and controllable air‐deflecting vanes are mounted within the outlets.